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Friday, November 22, 2013

Frequently Asked Friday - Blades

For years I have been using the standard #11 Classic Fine Blade from X-ACTO. It has served me well, they aren't too expensive when you buy them in packs of 100 and they hold up pretty good while cutting through paper.

Then, earlier this month, while I was at Quilt Festival, I bought a Precision Art Knife from the Olfa booth. It drew me in with this fancy word: Precision. I felt that mostly what I was going for was precision, so I bought it, went home and cut something out. It was like cutting through butter. I immediately looked up how much a 100 pack would cost. The cheapest I could find was $69.99 from, of course, Amazon. I love and hate buying from Amazon because it's generally the cheapest price, but sometimes it gouges small or even large businesses. But that smoothness of cut was just divine and I waited until the next paycheck came in to splurge on this fancy treat.

I found that they both wore out at about the same speed, so, if you're budget friendly, the X-ACTO blades are going to be your go-to blades (at 20.66 for Prime members, what a steal). But if you want to cut with something that feels like you're cutting through clouds, try the OLFA blades. I'll bet it's so excellent because it comes from Japan. Japanese people have mad paper crafting skills. I'm still more fond of my X-ACTO X2000 knife though. I like the way it feels when I hold it.

What about you? Is there something different that you try? Are you a craft knife type of person or a scissors person?

I like the sharpness of the Olfa blades too, but for me they seem to lose their 'tip' faster than some other brands. I do recommend Proedge if you haven't tried them yet- they are probably my all-time favorite blade manufacturer. :)

I have used scissors and an x-acto.I loved my scissors, but the tip got broke, and that is the part I needed, never found them around here again. My hands and nerves don't work as well as they used to, so I haven't done any blade cutting, so sticking to easy snowflakes for now.

I just started cutting paper and happened to buy an Olfa knife just because it was the only brand-name knife my local hobby shopped carried. A pack of 25 blades only cost me 6 euros though, so it seems surprising to pay $70 for a 100-pack! Maybe because they're imported? Who knows, but I'm happy to know that I randomly picked a good brand :)

I use NT cutter blades for Utility knife. There are have a tipe with 30 Degrees blade, the same as Xacto knife. Very Durable, very sharp and very easy to Break the edge when it Dulles. Overe her (Israel) it cost about 5$ for 5 blades (Ten pieces each)

I have never liked xacto blades. For me, the tip breaks the first time I don't cut in a straight line. I switch to Excel and love them. I am curious to try Olfa though. As with you, waiting for the next paycheck.